I believe the restraint isn't that there aren't candidates willing/able to serve on the FEC, but a combination of a deliberate desire to keep the FEC below quorum to limit their range of action, and the President having trouble getting nominees confirmed by the Senate generally. FEC nominees in effect require sign-off by President, Senate majority leader, and Senate minority leader, and those three aren't getting along all that often nowadays. There is some quasi-precedent. In 1999, a "R seat" on the FEC opened up, and President Clinton said he would nominate whomever the Senate Rs put forward, so McConnell said he wanted a (small L) libertarian for the seat. Professor Bradley Smith ultimately was appointed, serving until 2005. JBH ------------ Joe Bishop-Henchman LNC Member (At-Large) joe.bishop-henchman@lp.org www.facebook.com/groups/189510455174837 On 2019-10-23 14:56, Daniel Fishman via Lnc-business wrote:
Of course the FEC is currently paralyzed with only 2 of its 6 members currently seated, but that leads to a fascinating chain of thought:
Members are appointed by the President and only 3 can be from any one party.
It occurs to me that it might suit this President's whimsy to appoint a Libertarian while the GOP still control the Senate. Would the LNC have any interest in my trying to make the President aware of the idea? --- Daniel Fishman Executive Director The Libertarian Party Join Us <http://www.lp.org/join>
On Wed, Oct 23, 2019 at 2:38 PM Tim Hagan via Lnc-business < lnc-business@hq.lp.org> wrote:
As far as I know, we have not submitted anything. I will look into the potential changes. The Notice 2019-14 may be to force the FEC to create forms for the segregated accounts, which they have not done since the three segregated accounts became law. We have been following the FEC's advice to report contributions to the building fund as Other Federal Receipts, and report expenses from the building fund as Other Disbursements. The itemized ones get a memo stating "Headquarters Account".
--- Tim Hagan Treasurer, Libertarian National Committee
On 2019-10-23 11:13, John Phillips via Lnc-business wrote:
Have we submitted anything on these upcoming potential FEC changes?
Notice 2019-13: Currently list exchanges are unreported if they are equal value (2002-14, Advisory Opinion to LNC). Petitioner wants ALL exchanges reported.
Notice 2019-14: Currently the form for segregated national party accounts (Convention, HQ, Recount and legal) allows for inconsistencies according to petitioner. Petitioner seeks to force all individual and aggregate transactions to be reported by segregated account.
Comments to FEC due Monday
Notice of rule making was at end of August
I don't have much more knowledge than that, it was just brought to my attention. Nor is my area of expertise how much these potential changes might affect us. I understand there are some filing date changes as well.
John Phillips Libertarian National Committee Region 6 Representative Cell 217-412-5973